Open Road brings Joe Carnahan's 'The Grey' back around for awards consideration
The studio is also re-expanding 'End of Watch' in theaters
Liam Neeson in "The Grey"
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Nearly a full year later, Joe Carnahan's "The Grey" is still, to me, one of 2012's best films. There was talk last year of it being released in time for awards consideration, but it didn't happen. And when the January bow happened this year, there was discussion of bringing it back around for consideration by year's end. It looks like that will happen, in some small way.
Open Road Films has announced that the film will be given an exclusive two-week engagement at Laemmle theaters in both Santa Monica and Encino starting this Friday, December 7. Guild and Academy members will be given free entrance to the showings by presenting their membership cards, so obviously the goal is to get them out of the house to see the film on the big screen rather than risk it being lost in the never-ending stack of screeners that accumulates this time of year.
Meanwhile, star Liam Neeson has done Q&As at a few screenings this season, even touching on the personal nature of the role (a man who lost his wife, cutting close to the bone for the actor, whose own wife Natasha Richardson died following a skiing accident in March of 2009).
Open Road has also announced -- as noted in a recent interview with Jake Gyllenhaal -- a re-expansion of David Ayer's "End of Watch," hoping to angle some consideration for Gyllenhaal and co-star Michael Peña. Will any of it work? It would certainly be nice if voters would look beyond the usual films in play this season for nuggets like these. Here's hoping.
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2012-2013 OSCAR PREDICTIONS
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Original Screenplay
Best Cinematography
Best Costume Design
Best Film Editing
Best Makeup And Hairstyling
Best Original Score
Best Original Song
Best Production Design
Best Sound Editing
Best Sound Mixing
Best Visual Effects
Best Animated Feature Film
Best Documentary Feature
Best Foreign Language Film
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Login or create a HitFix account Login Signupjweezy
December 4, 2012 at 6:27PM EST Reply to CommentI'd love to see Pena get a nod for End of Watch. He's been doing quality work for so many years (he's still the only good thing about CRASH). Kudos to Open Road for giving it a shot.
d2 Actually, Crash's cinematography was really quite good as well. Great digital work.
December 4, 2012 at 6:29PM ESTd2
December 4, 2012 at 6:29PM EST Reply to CommentProbably not, but I hope so. I got more out of Liam Neeson's performance than I got out of the works of Anthony Hopkins, Denzel Washington, John Hawkes and Daniel Day-Lewis' work combined. Only Joaquin Phoenix, Richard Gere and maybe Bradley Cooper's work stands out among Neeson's the greatness of Neeson's career resurgence
James
December 4, 2012 at 7:19PM EST Reply to CommentStill one of my favorite films of the year and will most likely be in my top 10. Even top 5. A total surprise from Carnahan whose work I've never been too impressed by. It probably won't get anything although aside from Neeson's performance there some terrific technical work on the picture too.
I got around to End of Watch. Eh. Aside from the two main performances, this flick disappointed me in the same way Silver Linings did. It's an indie that feels like a studio picture. A pulp writer like Ayer can't decide if he wants to do a slice of life depiction of cops or one that is narrative driven with a recurring 1 dimensional bad guys and loosely connected plot threads, but I do appreciate it's refreshing positive view of the LAPD rather than a corrupt one. The actors make the most of the roles and its at its best when they feel like their improvising within the car. I just wish we didn't get obvious lines of obligation like "I'll take care of your wife if you pass." or "I love you man." I also found the direction distracting and sometimes just lazy as its trying to spice up the cliche proceedings. Gyllenhaal and Pena sell it enough, but I guess I was hoping for another cop drama on the level of last year's Rampart by Oren Moverman and James Ellroy. As ridiculous as the day is in Training Day, that film is still the best thing Ayer wrote when his voice was still fresh.
cineJAB
December 4, 2012 at 11:02PM EST Reply to CommentThe Grey is already on netflix now too! About to watch
tesh
December 4, 2012 at 11:22PM EST Reply to CommentI loved the Grey too. Why it was relegated to a January release, and not June or even April, baffles me. It's existential, sure, but it's thrilling too.
GlennAU Open Road aren't the most profitable distributor. They not only saw more revenue coming in January, but also probably figured there are far more bad movies out in January so an actual good one would get more attention.
December 4, 2012 at 11:39PM ESTtesh thanks
December 5, 2012 at 4:02PM ESTAmericanRequiem
December 5, 2012 at 12:01AM EST Reply to Commentboth great movies, pena dserves attention as does neeson. Maybe a lone sound nod for The grey...woud be earned.
Matt
December 5, 2012 at 12:05AM EST Reply to CommentWow. The Grey feels like it was three years ago. A shame, because it had beautiful cinematography and editing.
Chris138
December 5, 2012 at 12:27AM EST Reply to CommentI bought the Blu-ray for this movie several months ago when it came out but haven't gotten around to revisiting it. I'll probably do that in the coming weeks. Nonetheless, I thought it was a very powerful movie when I saw it almost a year ago and Liam Neeson's performance would still rank among the best I've seen so far this year. I doubt it will really get anywhere during the awards season but it's worth a try.